MS Research Australia’s latest grant funding round has committed funding to a number of projects aimed at developing better treatments to prevent the immune system from damaging the brain and spinal cord.
We are excited that amongst the grants in our latest funding round we have committed to funding a number of projects that carefully target the immune system to prevent relapses and progression. These include projects that will investigate the precise control mechanisms to lock immune cells out of the brain, finding genes that control the immune system, and to completely reboot the immune system.
Associate Professor Scott Byrne from the University of Sydney, NSW, has been investigating the biology behind the known link between low levels of sun exposure and an increased risk of developing MS. He previously discovered that when people have been exposed to sunlight there are changes in their immune system. This in effect traps damaging immune cells in the lymph nodes and stops them from entering the brain and spinal cord. He now aims to identify the naturally occurring molecule which is responsible for trapping the immune cells. The ultimate aim is that this molecule can be used as a specific treatment for people with MS.
Dr Anne Bruestle from the Australian National University, ACT, is also looking at another way to modulate the immune system. It is known that certain cells of the immune system called neutrophils can create net-like structures capturing and immobilising microbes. This is part of the neutrophils’ role to defend the body against foreign invaders, but it can also lead to the immune system attacking the body. Dr Bruestle and her team have developed a new drug that blocks these net-like structures and has shown that it can nearly stop the disease progression in a laboratory model of MS. They are now looking to examine this phenomena in people and determine its impact on the immune system in MS. The pathway for this research into clinical trials may prove promising as the treatment so far appears to have few side effects and is inexpensive to manufacture.
An important part of MS Research Australia’s funding strategy is also to attract and retain the brightest researchers and clinicians into the field of MS research. This year our PhD scholarships have gone to two very promising young clinicians who will focus on MS research while completing their advanced neurology training.
Dr Christopher Dwyer will work with Professor Trevor Kilpatrick at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, VIC, to investigate the role of a gene called MERTK in the immune system. MERTK is a gene that is strongly implicated in the development of progressive MS. Dr Dwyer will determine whether the MERTK gene acts via the innate immune cells within the brain and spinal cord (known as microglia) or via the dendritic cells in the blood. These findings will hopefully be used to develop a treatment strategy based on MERTK to target exactly the right type of immune cells in progressive MS.
Dr Jennifer Massey a clinician from the University of NSW and St Vincent’s Hospital NSW will work with neurologist Dr Ian Sutton and haematologist Associate Professor John Moore to investigate autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT). AHSCT is an immunosuppressive chemotherapy treatment combined with reinfusion of blood stem cells to help re-build the immune system. Dr Massey aims to understand the effects the treatment has on the immune system and how this matches with the treatment outcomes. Her work will add to the international body of work aiming to produce treatment guidelines for the use of AHSCT in MS and could potentially lead to other strategies to reset the immune system that do not require such intensive chemotherapy treatments.
All of these important projects cross the divide between the laboratory and the clinic, generating the crucial pathway for rapid translation of research into practice to benefit people with MS.
